NYT 10 Best Books of the Year

This is the season when we unveil our 10 Best Books of the year, which always leads to questions. What do you mean by “best”? How do you pick them and what gets left off? As we did last week with our 100 Notables, I’m offering this special newsletter to address some of the most commonly asked questions posed by our readers, and to offer a behind-the-scenes view of how we put these kinds of lists together and what makes our list different from the many other year-end lists out there.

If you’d like to tell me about which books you’re happy made the list, which books you wish had been on there or any other feedback about this year’s 10 Best, please email me at books@nytimes.com. (Yes, I personally check that inbox.) I’ll be back this Friday with the rest of our 10 Best Books issue.

Let the cheering (and debating) begin,

Pamela Paul Editor of The New York Times Book Review @PamelaPaulNYT